It’s been a weird season for Grand Canyon University, but things may be looking up as the Lopes look ahead to next year.

Head Coach Ryan Kelly had to find games where he could as GCU wasn’t in a conference, and unfortunately that meant that in the middle of the spring season, teams weren’t available, and some that were available backed out.

But after playing just one game from the end of February to the beginning of April (a 38-22 loss to Notre Dame), they finished with games against Cal Poly (a 59-21 loss) and USC (a 59-8 win).

“It was great that Cal Poly could pay us and I think in that game we kind of came of age,” said Kelly. “We started 14 freshmen or first-year players, and then when we played USC we showed what we’re able to do. The players came out of that with a lot of optimism.”

The Lopes need a conference to play in, and it could be that the West DIA is the one for them. Certainly the varsity program isn’t expected to to rumble over other teams just yet - Kelly started from the ground up and his team remains very young.

“We have about 44 guys retiring and some new incoming players - some impressive athletes,” he said. “We’re taking 7s very seriously and looking at what we can do there, because think we were very competitive in 7s. We learned a lot working with [USA player and Arizona native] Brett Thompson, who ran with us. And we are looking to get into a conference and compete.”

GCU has unearthed some interesting talents along the way, but one everyone may want to take a look at is wing/center Ricky Wisdom. A product of the Desert Sands program in the Californian interior, Wisdom is only 19 and a powerful, and very fast, back. A 110-meter hurdler in high school, he was a top contender at the event in California and posted a personal best of 14.58, which is really good. At 6-1, 185 he is tall, strong, and very quick.

“He’s just got a lot of upside,” enthused Kelly. “He’s got talent, he’s young, and he’s a player who should be on someone’s radar.”

Wait, are we talking about Wisdom, or the GCU team as a whole?